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Mysterious Mysteries
"Mysterious Mysteries" is the 1st segment in the 15th episode of the first season of Invader Zim. It first premiered on March 22, 2002, on Nickelodeon. Plot Summary When Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery is having trouble in ratings due to a lack of stories, the Anchor of the show decides to take drastic measures, finally requesting one of Dib's files to be on the show. The file in question happens to be a video which Dib took of Zim and GIR in the woods out of their disguises, along with a mysterious glowing orb that's seemingly of alien origin. Dib's video and story seem to satisfy the Anchor, but at that point, Zim comes onto the show to disprove the video. In his version of the story, the events are twisted, making it look like Dib was bullying Zim for his lunch money. Dib vociferously denies this, and he questions the glow in the video, certain that Zim will be unable to cover it up. However, the expert who analyzes the video turns out to be none other than Professor Membrane, who dismisses it as swamp gas. Zim asserts to the Anchor that Dib's crazy, and claims that any classmate the Anchor asks will agree; sure enough, all of the Skoolchildren interviewed say the same thing, Dib's crazy. However, Dib's not deterred and claims that visionaries are always seen as "crazy". In an attempt to get some support, Dib asks Gaz to be brought onto the show as a witness. However, her testimony is of little help, her version negatively depicts Dib and Zim babbling stupidly, followed by Gaz knocking down Dib with a sweep kick. Finally, the Anchor's about to declare a cold case when a "surprise witness" named Stacy abruptly comes on the show, claiming to know the truth. However, as it turns out, this is none other than GIR, with nothing more than pixelation concealing his features from the screen. When Dib accuses him of working with Zim, he's quickly beaten and restrained in a straitjacket. "Stacy's" version recalls that "she" was the chubby lady hiding in the bushes when a giant squirrel showed up and "ate Dib's greasy head," then flew back to his home planet to "fight all the bad guys." Utterly flummoxed by the nonsensical testimony, the Anchor finally concludes that all of the witnesses save Gaz are crazy, and that Zim isn't an alien, but "just crazy." Satisfied with this conclusion, Zim drags "Stacy" out of the studio. Meanwhile, having decided nothing matters anymore, the host decides that he's crazy, too, and then he starts babbling at the camera. When he watches the footage later, his boss tells him to give him more of the same as crazy "brings good rating", much to the host's repressed horror. Facts of Doom Cultural References *Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery is a parody of the Robert Stack' series Unsolved Mysteries. The host of the show is also based on Unsolved Mysteries's former host Dennis Farinna, who hosted and narrated the show since 2008 to 2010. *The actor of "Stacy" in the last dramatic re-enactment highly resembles Bonnie from Family Guy. Things You Might Have Missed *During the reenactments, there is a balcony visible in the background with a crew member on it. In every reenactment, he is doing random actions, such as sitting on a sofa drinking lemonade. *At the beginning, when the Blotch is shown, there is a man who resembles Dib (in a blue shirt). This character is typically referred to as Adult Dib, and he also appears in "Attack of the Saucer Morons". A man who looks like Chunk can also be seen in the background. smiling prior to knocking over Baby Dib’s blocks.]] *The Dib actor was actually injured by the squirrel, as the guy on the balcony can be seen pulling up a stretcher with Dib's actor on it in the scene after the clip where GIR says "Me and the squirrel are friends!". *Baby Gaz was seen smiling briefly before Baby Dib places the last block, and she proceeded to kick them away. Trivia *This is the second time in which Gaz once more saves Zim's life unknowingly, the first time being in "Battle-Dib" and the third and final time would have been in "Ten Minutes to Doom". *According to the concept art, the Producer of Mysterious Mysteries is really a tiny woman in a huge suit. *No one seems to notice or care that Gir's identity could have easily been verified thanks to the video Dib provided. *Mysterious Mysteries apparently contacted Zim without Dib's knowledge to appear on the show. *This is the only time in the entire series in which Gaz appears on TV. Dib, on the other hand, has appeared on TV three times, counting this episode as well as "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" and "Gaz, Taster of Pork." **This is also the first time Zim has been on TV, the second time is in the aforementioned episode "The Girl Who Cried Gnome", and the third and final time was in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever." *Dib and Gaz are seen as babies, with this episode, two of the four main characters are seen as infants, Zim's smeethood was briefly seen in "Parent Teacher Night". *Most of the episode is seen through an editing room. *LOVE2D's 11.2 update is named "Mysterious Mysteries". Inconsistencies and Animation Errors *The first time the Mysterious Mysteries crew looked at the Pigfoot picture, his mask was pink; the second time, it was tan. *When Dib flashes on the screen at the beginning of the episode, the Mysterious Mysteries host has a scar. The next time it shows him as he walks to the closet, the scar is gone. *During GIR's recounting of the events in the video, while the man in the squirrel outfit is hanging by strings when he "flies away" and hovers over a scrolling background of outer space, the left side of the image of the squirrel-man cuts off. This may have been an intentional, humorous portrayal of poor green-screening, but the next cut, showing that the outer space background is a part of the set he's on, suggests that it was simply an animation error. See also *Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery *Mysterious Mysteries (Transcript) *Mysterious Mysteries Screenshots References *http://www.tv.com/invader-zim/mysterious-mysteries/episode/114857/summary.html es:Misterios misteriosos Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes Category:Screenshots Category:Pages in the real-life POV